On April 3, Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir arrived in the United States. It was her first visit since she helped WikiLeaks release the “Collateral Murder” video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by US forces in Iraq, and it coincided with the three-year anniversary of the release.

Even though she had her personal data subpoenaed and investigated as part of the US government’s wide investigation into WikiLeaks, she was able to enter the US without any problem. She participated in multiple events in support of Pfc. Bradley Manning, an action for alleged Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond and, in general, whistleblowers and dissidents in the country being targeted by their government.

I spoke to Birgitta. The following is Part 1 of an interview with her. In this first part, we discuss the response to Manning’s disclosures to WikiLeaks in Iceland, the US government’s investigation into her and what led to the FBI coming to Iceland.

*

KEVIN GOSZTOLA, The Dissenter: What do you have to share about what the response to Manning’s disclosures have been in Iceland? I know the Reykjavik cable in Iceland was released.

BIRGITTA JONSDOTTIR, Icelandic MP: The Reykjavik cable when it came out—I personally was and lots of other MPs—were in a huge battle to get a lot of information out that was in a secret folder that MPs were given or given access after demands from us. And we had to sit in a secret little room with staff from the parliament and read a big folder that was mostly filled with rubbish but the real juicy stuff was at the end of it.

Somebody leaked some of these documents to WikiLeaks. I don’t know how they did that because you had a guard sitting over you. And these documents were really important. None of the MPs were reading them. Then Bradley Manning had apparently been following the Icesave thing probably because he had been following what was going on in Iceland. He might have known that Assange was there—

GOSZTOLA: He says that he was interested in WikiLeaks and was seeing it pop up in forums.

JONSDOTTIR: Oh, right, then WikiLeaks was publishing stuff from Iceland—the big long book. That is how WikiLeaks became known in Iceland. So, that’s probably how that got his attention because that was a really pivotal leak for us in the wake of the collapse. And then we got this leak, the Reykjavik cables.

I’ll tell you a funny story because when that leak came I was at an Icesave meeting with all the heads of state and the foreign affairs minister and we were waiting for someone to come to the meeting and one of the leaders of the Progressive Party or something he had his phone on with the radio, the 12 o’clock news. There was news about the leak and everyone was like, wow, that embassy. It’s so leaky. It’s unbelievable. There was all this stuff coming out of the embassy. And there was actually a portrait of two ministers that were leaked, profiles that the embassy had made, that were sitting at this meeting. So, it was quite bizarre.

That particular was very important for the Icelandic people. Then, when he did his testimony, I was disappointed that there wasn’t any Icelandic media covering his trial because, obviously, the way things turned out the “Collateral Murder” the “Collateral Murder” video was done in collaboration with the Icelandic state broadcaster. One would have thought they would have cared enough when they found out that the person that was actually source for this important material and that the state broadcaster was actually a participator in making history, that they would pay more attention.

But, that’s the problem with media everywhere. There really seems to be apathy toward the importance of the leaks among certain types of media. And it’s not only confined to the United States. That’s why I have this strong feeling that really the media is in this state of transformation or metamorphous and the old style media is dying. And I was actually participating in creating a new law for the state broadcaster and I said in my speech—and this was like a month ago or less—I said, okay, this law is a bit better than the other one but it’s going to become out of date after a year because it’s not taking into account this transformation. And the news website nobody reads it because they don’t invest any money in it. So, that will be the fate of many media. There are whole generations that don’t use traditional media. They don’t listen to radio. They don’t watch television. They find the news themselves. And that’s why people like you are really the future of media.

GOSZTOLA: Many in the United States have heard your name because the US government is going after you. What you can share about the investigation into you and how Iceland has responded?

JONSDOTTIR: The Department of Justice demanded that Twitter hand over my personal stuff—my messages and ID numbers and stuff like that. Many people don’t understand what that means and I remember when I got this message from them, this email, my first reaction was to tweet about it. I was very furious, a very impulsive person. You know, do they not realize that I am a member of Parliament and that is really the essence of it.

I am a member of Parliament and I am entrusted with information from the Icelandic people, not only my voters, but many others that want to pass information to me as a member of Parliament. And they don’t understand that the only way—Because I am very easily accessible as an MP. I run a Twitter account that I am very active on. I run Facebook pages and I have a Gmail account. They don’t understand that if they want complete protection they can only access me via parliamentary email. So, all the Facebook messages and Twitter private messages are now at scrutiny by the US government and I think that is very settling.

If similar things were to happen to senators or congressman here by let’s say China or Iran, I think people would be very upset. And it’s setting a very bad precedent and that’s why the Icelandic Parliamentary Union asked me to come to the human rights committee because this is taken very seriously among other nations. And The IP has been around since 1885 and it’s sort of a platform where parliamentarians from all different parts of the world except maybe the United States and one or two other rogue countries come to work together. They made a very harsh international parliamentary resolution that people can read by Googling my last name.

The disturbing part is in the first court ruling, when I lost for the first time—And it wasn’t just me. It was other people like Jacob Appelbaum and Roy Gonggrijp—The ruling was that we do not have to [????] . And I think that is very serious ruling that people do not understand. So, I have to rely on social media companies to look after me and it might not always be in their interest, like what Amazon did to WikiLeaks for example. Particularly, it’s disturbing if you write me a letter and then all of a sudden you are under scrutiny by your government because you talked to me and I haven’t done—According to the government, I am not under investigation. So, I have just come to the conclusion that the United States has lost understanding of what law is all about. The way it is used to persecute people and make a lot of them political prisoners in this country is very disturbing.

In my case, the FBI came to Iceland under false pretenses and apparently were investigating me, according to the person who asked to be a source for them, and then told me and the general committee that he had knocked on the door of the US embassy and asked to be a source for the FBI. Unfortunately for them and for all of us who are part of this investigation, that person is a pathological liar. And so, it would be interesting if they believe anything he says. He should be disqualified but this seems to be a trend to recruit people that are not mentally well.

GOSZTOLA: Did I read correctly in media from Iceland they were going to now investigate this “pathological liar”?

JONSDOTTIR: What they actually did is they offered him to be a snitch and to go off to Julian Assange because this guy used to be a WikiLeaks volunteer. I’d actually advised Assange, don’t come close to this person because he’s the guy who lied about CIA being on the airplane when Julian Assange was going to Norway.

It really all started with LulzSec, around the time that Sabu was turned. So, Sabu and this Ziggy—like this WikiLeaks volunteer—were discussing how LulzSec could attack Iceland and then the FBI notified the Icelandic authorities that Iceland was under immediate threat because LulzSec was going to attack our immediate infrastructure. That’s how they got into Iceland. But the irony is that this attack was cooked up by their informant. So, it’s all pretty dodgy and it feels a little desperate to me cause they’re not finding anything. There is just absolutely nothing.

If they hope that prosecuting Bradley Manning under the Espionage Act and then getting to the rest of us, I mean, they’re going to have to fabricate evidence because nothing like that happened, what they’re indicating. And then obviously every newspaper that’s ever published any of the leaks has been “aiding the enemy.” Now, is that a path the mainstream media is willing to take? They might think they have been forced to shut up about the Bradley Manning and not talk about stuff that is inconvenient for the government, but when they start to get taken down one by one on exactly the stuff that WikiLeaks is being taken down on—They should just wake up.

29 Responses
to “Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, During Visit, Describes Being Targeted by US Government”

Then, when he did his testimony, I was disappointed that there wasn’t any Icelandic media covering his trial because, obviously, the way things turned out the “Collateral Murder” the “Collateral Murder” video was done in collaboration with the Icelandic state broadcaster

Did America ” lean” on their State Broadcaster and or the government that controls their state broadcaster?

And the news website nobody reads it because they don’t invest any money in it.

True

But, that’s the problem with media everywhere. There really seems to be apathy toward the importance of the leaks among certain types of media

Not covering the stories that people want to read I feel is the biggest reason. Why they her media and ours don’t cover these stories is a good question.

So, that will be the fate of many media. There are whole generations that don’t use traditional media. They don’t listen to radio. They don’t watch television. They find the news themselves. And that’s why people like you are really the future of media.

I am a member of Parliament and I am entrusted with information from the Icelandic people, not only my voters, but many others that want to pass information to me as a member of Parliament. And they don’t understand that the only way—Because I am very easily accessible as an MP. I run a Twitter account that I am very active on. I run Facebook pages and I have a Gmail account. They don’t understand that if they want complete protection they can only access me via parliamentary email. So, all the Facebook messages and Twitter private messages are now at scrutiny by the US government and I think that is very settling.

May I suggest a solution

For those interested in how public key encryption works, the following will be a simplified example. Let’s say Alice wants to send a message to Bob. Bob has two large prime numbers multiplied together, but we will use small primes for illustration, p=5 and q=7. So the product, N= 5 X 7 = 35. Bob also calculates a number e which is relatively prime to (p-1)(q-1) or e is relatively prime to 4 X 6 = 24. Let’s pick e=7. He also calculates d, where e X d = 1 (mod (p-1)(q-1)). In this case d=7, since 7 X 7 = 49 (mod 24) = 1.

Bob’s public key is (N,e) or (35,7), his private key is (N,d).

Now the message Alice wants to send is also simple for illustration, it is the letter “M”, which can be translated to the 13th letter of the alphabet, or “13″.

Particularly, it’s disturbing if you write me a letter and then all of a sudden you are under scrutiny by your government because you talked to me and I haven’t done—According to the government, I am not under investigation.

Under what circumstances should any government be able to read your e-mail? Is my question Criminal cases provided they have evidence enough for a search warrant?
Bradley Manning is accused of Treason but in America Treason seems to be not harming the troops or exposing lies about war ( Scouter Libby never went to jail for leaking American spy Valerie Palme’s Identity ) rather Treason seems to be exposing America committing war crimes.
An International standard from the UN for the internet on exposing e-mail is needed we obviously can’t trust those Americans in government to do whats right.
( Oh I am an American if the CIA is reading though as a Mexican American I have the Right to be pulled over by the police for driving brown.)

Unfortunately for them and for all of us who are part of this investigation, that person is a pathological liar. And so, it would be interesting if they believe anything he says. He should be disqualified but this seems to be a trend to recruit people that are not mentally well.</blockquote>

My Bold CueBall the CIA source for most of their Intel that lead to the Iraq war. Judy Miller the New York Times Reporter who did not independently verify a single fact about the stories she wrote which were Cueball’s facts given to her by a government source. Of course Judy Kept her Pulitizer Prize for Journalism she had earned it probably ” on her back”

more examples

Remember how during the Bush years the FBI and its media allies had collective pants-peeings over various small-time outfits whose leaders and instigators were the FBI agents who’d infiltrated them and organized them? You know, like the guys who were supposedly going to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago but who were so hapless they didn’t know where Chicago was — and so poor their FBI-agent ringleader had to buy them all boots? Or the idiots who thought they could take out the Brooklyn Bridge with hacksaws?

Does Brigitta think if Bradley Manning ever gets out he could seek Asylum in IceLand? ask Rodney King what life was like in America when every cop knows your face and knows you snitched on them.
Well Rodney had the crap beat out of him by cops he didn’t take the video of himself getting beat up. Of course now it is illegal in America unless your the government with a traffic camera or a business with a security camera to video tape the police without their permission.

If they hope that prosecuting Bradley Manning under the Espionage Act and then getting to the rest of us, I mean, they’re going to have to fabricate evidence because nothing like that happened, what they’re indicating.

Fabricate Evidence the FBI does that all the time unless of course if your a racist just look at all the Cops and D.A’s getting killed in America in the last month or so but the FBI does nothing.

And then obviously every newspaper that’s ever published any of the leaks has been “aiding the enemy.” Now, is that a path the mainstream media is willing to take?

Yes

They might think they have been forced to shut up about the Bradley Manning and not talk about stuff that is inconvenient for the government, but when they start to get taken down one by one on exactly the stuff that WikiLeaks is being taken down on—They should just wake up.

I would have used the phrase Grow a Pair or Get a Spine but I don’t see that happening. Thats why the Lefty Blogs are getting bigger. We report the truth and if people disagree they can bring up their disagreement in Real Time and with google supply facts and links about why they are right.

National security letters allow FBI officials to send a secret request to Web and telecommunications companies requesting “name, address, length of service,” and other information about users as long as it’s relevant to a national security investigation. No court approval is required, and disclosing the existence of the FBI’s request is not permitted.

Fascinating. Yet, as a common citizen who seeks to understand ANOTHER unfolding story of USG persecution, it’s difficult to gain information pertaining to this particular abomination, and even more difficult to put 2+2 together. Let me give a few examples.
It’s difficult enough in my own country, to access info on secret events occurring in my government, and thanks to sites like this and the net, it is getting easier. However, for one to put various pieces of any given info puzzle together, using info on events in another country, such as Iceland, some things are not easily understood, as they are particular to that country.
For instance, as hard as I try, I am confused about some things..

On April 3, Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir arrived in the United States.

From Kevin’s first line, Birgitta Jonsdottir is an Icelandic parliamentarian. Is that similar to a US Congressman?

It was her first visit since she helped WikiLeaks release the “Collateral Murder” video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by US forces in Iraq, and it coincided with the three-year anniversary of the release.

In what way did she “help” Wikileaks RELEASE the video?

The Reykjavik cable when it came out—I personally was and lots of other MPs—were in a huge battle to get a lot of information out that was in a secret folder that MPs were given or given access after demands from us.

Lots of questions from this statement alone.
1…what is the Reykjavik cable? I am correct in assuming this is a cable from Wikileaks, and if so, is it one that Manning leaked? Any links?
2. What is an MP? Furthermore, what is a “parliamentarian?
3. Who were the MP’s in a battle with?
4. So the “MP’s”, demanded something from somebody. Does that mean that the ENTIRE parliament was in a battle with someone? Why?
5. So, given the way this sentence is stated, I “assume” the Reykjavik cable was within this “secret folder”, no?
6. WHO was the party that “gave” the MP’s this “secret” folder?
7. WHY was it “secret”, and WHO was privy to it?
8. I also “assume”, the ENTIRE parliament was allowed to see it, no?

And we had to sit in a secret little room with staff from the parliament and read a big folder that was mostly filled with rubbish but the real juicy stuff was at the end of it.

So, not only was the “folder” secret, there is some sort of “secret little room” as well. So…
9. Who is “we”, the ENTIRE parliament? If so, how many people, and who were they in this secret “little” room to be “allowed” to see this folder?
10. WHO was doing the “allowing”?
11. What was the “rubbish” in the folder? In common use here, “rubbish” is translated as GARBAGE, which to me, seems rather weird to put in a folder? Does this refer to “lies”, or information that is “stupid”, at least to make “secret”?
12. I also assume the “juicy stuff” was the cable, no? How does the “video” issue fit into this “secret folder” stuff? Was the video “played” to all the parties in this secret room, or something?

Somebody leaked some of these documents to WikiLeaks. I don’t know how they did that because you had a guard sitting over you.

13. So, somebody leaked some documents. WHAT documents..the ones in the SECRET FOLDER in a SECRET ROOM????
14. So, everyone in that SECRET ROOM, had a “guard” looking over their shoulder. Hmmm, this is getting weirder by the minute. How MANY guards does it take to look over the shoulder of an ENTIRE parliament, PLUS their staff?????????

Hmmmm, since everyone was being guarded, has it occurred to anyone, that whoever this party is that had the authority to place a guard on everyone, MUST have had this so-called “secret folder”, in another “place”, prior to being brought into the secret room, no? Is it not conceivable that some OTHER party, who was “privy” to this other “place”, may have “given” a copy to Wikileaks PRIOR to it being delivered to the secret room?
And THEN we have this..

And these documents were really important. None of the MPs were reading them.

Really important. Yet rubbish. hmmmmm. Ok. Must be why “none” of the MP’s were reading them, no? Yet somehow, it appeared “important” enough to place a guard over everyone.
ummmm,I dunno, but this whole thing sounds pretty weird to me.
Well, I have a ton more questions but these are enough for now. Any answers would surely be appreciated as I feel like this story is very important, but for me, it’s like reading a few excerpts from a book, and then having to make a book report. Ha!
ok, I’ll be back with more. Carry on. :)

I hate that our Government has done this to you over news releases that the American people need to know.

In fact, since all of us little people in the world are being watched and listened to, it would only be fair and lawful if our political heads were subject to the same. “No man is above the Law” But, we should all first have the ability to review openly these secret laws and determine if they are in fact Constitutional and in line with the Bill of Rights. We also must investigate what the terror threats are that causes our Government to go to such extremes.

When our current stance of surveillance and secret laws are based on the old Nazi style, “Soviet Criminal Act” which moved the need for Gulags we MUST question all of it!

Please be on your guard of the Counter-Insurgency operations in your country. We are seeing it take place across the globe. Little people can do nothing at this time to stop it unless the banking sectors fall to the ground, which I know you are fully aware of.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! National Security. Good luck with that one. However, just knowing the USG surveillance state is sending them to Google is enough for me. Which, considering this…

No court approval is required, and disclosing the existence of the FBI’s request is not permitted.

…sends me rolling on the floor in gut splitting laughter.

Did someone leak THAT bit of info? Hahahahahahahahahaha! The FBI doesn’t want Google to let the public know they are recieving National Security letters..so what does Google do? They announce it to the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD in BOLD letters..via a suit. That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a week. I can just see the head FBI honcho’s face when he got the news. I bet his head was ready to explode. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Personally, I detest Google, but I gotta hand it to them for this one. Far fucking out. BRAVO.

It is exceedingly brave of Birgitta to enter the US considering that she is a target USG. Perhaps it was too risky for the government to arrest her just now since the Manning trial is coming shortly and arresting a member of a foreign parliament for participating in journalism might be counterproductive to their aims.

Perhaps it was too risky for the government to arrest her just now since the Manning trial is coming shortly and arresting a member of a foreign parliament for participating in journalism might be counterproductive to their aims.

Risky. right. Maybe, just maybe Assange has an ace up his sleeve.

Maybe something like…oh, I don’t know..perhaps a cable or two linking some HIGH government official with ties to a bank, who knows a certain military official, who oversees all the soldiers who guard those “fields” and the flights from Opiumkistan…who knows a dude in every country that processes and sells illegal things …well, who knows. That’s the risky question.

If Assange had something up his sleeve, my bet is that he would have already used it. Sadly, it sounds like DDB interfered with the release of Assange’s insurance files. But, maybe you know something we don’t?

Sadly, it sounds like DDB interfered with the release of Assange’s insurance files. But, maybe you know something we don’t?

Hmmmm, who is DDB? Sounds like you know more than I do, which ain’t much. I
was only “suggesting” certain people might be afraid of what’s on the cables that haven’t been released yet, and perhaps that is the reason the USG hasn’t done their thing yet. Although, certainly makes perfect sense to me, true or not. However, there WERE cables pertaining to the Opium trade in Afghanistan. And the drug connection to the CIA/USG is documented in depth.
Read this(among hundreds of other docs) and tell me my suggestion isn’t so far fetched.

And btw, I just saw Assange on 60 minutes last week and the host asked him about that “insurance” thing. He only said that in the event he was “arrested”, there we’re people to take over the mission..what ever that meant. He kinda left it open. So, maybe fill me in.
ya know snapdragon, it’s hard enough keeping up with one issue, let alone the hundred or so that have emerged since 9/11. It’s really starting to wear on me. What hurts most though, is knowing the America I was born in is …GONE. P E R I O D

Pretty amazing that Jonsdottir can just wander into and fully around in the United States and does not have to cower in fear in an Ecuadoran broom closet like Assange. But, if she can do that, kind of puts the lie to the Assange bullshit. Maybe it has just been he is too cowardly to face the Swedish charges all along. What a shock.

the way I understand the situation is that there are no “charges.” Assaunge is wanted for further questioning regarding the allegations of unprotected sex with them. He was questioned while he was in Sweden and released and left the country. Sweden then went to the extent of demanding extradition from UK to face “further questioning.” He fought UK extradition for 2 years and lost. Naiomi Wolff has some interesting points here http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021143808 and Assaunge’s concern about being shipped out of Sweden to U.S. seem to be valid. It’s not about being questioned re the unprotected sex allegations.

Thank you for this interview with MP Jonsdottir, Kevin. Your work demonstrates the truth of her observation

There are whole generations that don’t use traditional media. They don’t listen to radio. They don’t watch television. They find the news themselves. And that’s why people like you are really the future of media.

The “charges” in the Swedish criminal justice system do not get formally “filed” until the defendant’s presentment to the court. However, the exact charges to be levied are specified completely in the arrest warrant, and that was accepted as sufficiently “charged” by every level of the British legal system where it was litigated. He is NOT simply wanted for “further questioning” that is a fabrication propounded by his cult of followers. Naomi wolf is nuts, and if things were that bleak on US extradition and charging, Ms. Jonsdottir would not be galavanting around this country as she is now.

Is it possible that Jonsdottir was not arrested because her arrest would have drawn attention to Bradley Manning’s upcoming trial? It seems that she timed her arrival that way. USG likely didn’t bite for obvious reasons. We do know that USG was interested in her from the Twitter subpoena.

Yeah buddy! Our judicial system is really known for being on the up and up. In America, we have rules that even the presididn’t has to follow, if he wants to. What’s more, the Swedes wouldn’t be a party in some illegal rendition of someone, unless of course it was at a black site, and the people weren’t famous. But still…

Iceland also has been standing up to the US government. It did send the FBI packing when agents were found to be intruding. So, I am not necessarily arguing the US government has heard the message loud and clear—leave her alone. I do think they did not want to give her the ability to gain any more support by harassing her as she tried to enter the country.